Is Energy Efficient Roofing Worth the Money?

Energy efficient roofing is one of many creative solutions that you can use to save money on your energy bills. If you’re also trying to stay eco-friendly these roofing products will help you achieve your goal.

You may not have given energy efficient roofing much thought because a roof does not actively use any energy. However, your roof does impact the amount of energy that your home uses.

How Does an Energy Efficient Roof Work?

These roof systems are designed to reflect the heat of the sun. As a result, your AC doesn’t have to work as hard to cool your home and you use less energy.

In short, a cool roof is a roof designed to reflect sunlight and heat. Conventional roofing materials reflect only 5 to 15%, which means they absorb 85 to 95 percent of the energy and heat from the sun. The coolest roofing materials reflect more than 65%, absorbing 35% or less of the energy from the sun. Thermal emittance determines how readily a surface gives up heat. Ideally, a roof will have a high percentage of reflectance and a high percentage of emittance.

This can be accomplished either through the use of energy efficient roofing materials or by use of a white roof coating. You could also install a “green roof.”

Although green roofs fall into their own category, they provide similar benefits to cool roofs. Green roofs are gardens or mini-ecosystems that cover an existing roof with the aid of special planters. The greenery essentially shades the roof, reducing heat transfer and thereby keeping the building cool…Green roofs also act as insulators in cold weather and have a host of other benefits, such as absorbing rainfall for better stormwater management, reducing air pollution and providing garden space in densely populated areas where parkland is rare.

These roofs have the most benefit in a hot climate, of course, though Florida certainly qualifies as one of those!

Costs and Savings

As for being worth the money, Energy.gov reports that installing a cool roof typically doesn’t cost any more than any other roof does if you’re going to be installing or replacing a roof anyway. If your existing roof is still in good repair then you may want to consider a roof coating instead of a full roof install.

You also stand to save quite a bit of money on your electric bills. Energy Star notes that the cooling demand drops by 10% to 15% when a cool roof is present.